A Day in the Life of Alicia Spinnet
by Am
Summary: Yet again, the title says it all. Quite funny, I think.


Alicia Spinnet awoke in her rumpled Quidditch robes. She had been so tired after practice last night that she hadn't bothered to change into pajamas. Sitting up, she winced. Falling off her broom had not been a positive experience, to say the least, especially not now. _Add that to a grueling practice after being sick for the last two, and it's understandable that I'm so sore._ She slid out of bed and got a comb from the dresser. Running it through her short blond hair, she managed a sleepy smile at her reflection before heading down the hall to the showers.

§ § §

"Hey, Alicia," Fred Weasley said, snagging a chair next to her at the breakfast table, "how're you doing?"

"I could be better," she said, twisting in her chair to get some kinks out of her back, "but I'll live."

"That's good," said George, sitting beside his brother. "Falling off your broom like that…I'm glad you didn't break anything." He suddenly looked over to the Slytherin table, then turned back, grinning wickedly. "It's about to begin," he said, and his brother's smile was now twin to his own.

"What have you done this time?" Alicia asked curiously. She was not as passionate about practical jokes as the twins were, but she had helped them a few times, and the results of their evil genius had always been fun to watch.

"Oh, you'll see," Fred said.

"Yes, we made sure it would be _quite_ visible," added George. All three watched the Slytherin table. Suddenly several students shrieked. Alicia looked closely; they seemed to have sprouted fur. She spit out a mouthful of pumpkin juice; this had to qualify for one of the most ridiculous things she had ever seen. "You guys!" she exclaimed to Fred and George, before joining them, and half the student body, in sidesplitting laughter.

§ § §

"What was that?" Alicia asked George while heading up the stairs to Transfiguration.

"Hair-Growing Potion," he answered. "My little brother's class made it a few days ago." He grinned dreamily as they walked through the door. "It was even better than I had pictured. All of them running around like madmen, Snape trying catch them to give them the antidote…. I wonder if that kid Colin Creevy got a picture."

Alicia took her seat in class next to Katie Bell. "Hey, Katie."

"Hello, Alicia. How are you feeling?"

"I'll live." She caught sight of the long white quill on Katie's desk. "Have you figured out what it does yet?"

"I haven't a clue. It's hard to believe, but this could just be a plain old quill."

"Not likely," Alicia snorted. The quill had been sent from Katie's older sister, who had a flair for the wacky. The card had only said _Have fun_. Definitely not likely that it was ordinary. Katie had been keeping it up in the dormitory; apparently she had decided that it was safe for use.

"Well, it hasn't exploded, or glowed in the dark, or anything like that, so I thought I'd try taking notes with it today. It's been ages since I've had a new quill."

Katie took out a notebook, and carefully dipped her quill in the inkpot. As soon as it was loaded up, however, it jumped out of her hand and started writing furiously. Alicia stifled a small yell and read what was on the parchment:

Minerva McGonagall: I hope this class isn't as difficult to teach as the Ravenclaws were yesterday. Simply no grasp of Imaginative Transfiguration…

George Weasley: Oh, it was nice to see the Slytherins get it this morning. That'll teach them not to call me that anymore…

Alicia Spinnet: What is this, a quill that reads minds?…

Katie Bell: She's probably right….

It went on and on like that. The girl next to Alicia was idly wondering who would make the oddest couple among the teachers, a boy in the back was reviewing for a Charms test, and another boy was watching the moving quill with interest. After that, it ran out of ink and lay flat, an ordinary quill again, on top of the page of thoughts it had written.

"Oh, my gosh," Katie said, staring at it.

"I wonder if there's a way to control it," Alicia breathed. All sorts of possibilities were opening before her. Katie turned to her; from the look in her eyes, the same possibilities were occurring to Katie.

"Later," she said reluctantly, putting the quill away. In the front of the room, Professor McGonagall was looking around sternly. "Lunchtime, maybe. Class is about to begin."

§ § §

Alicia thought about Katie's quill on and off during the morning. "Off" was occupied by her classes. After Professor McGonagall began class, they started a new unit: Imaginative Transfiguration, a faster yet more difficult and imprecise branch of Transfiguration, which depended on the whole picture in one's mind's eye, not its individual characteristics. Alicia, like most of her classmates, found it difficult to master; it was very hard to keep every trait in mind at once. Odd things popped up all over the room: a cat without ears, a two-dimensional rose, a cloak whose color faded to transparency as it reached the floor.

"I keep forgetting something!" Alicia complained as she tried for the seventh time to produce a pumpkin pie. The first time there had been half a pie, as she had not imagined the other side. The second time there had been no middle. By the fifth time Alicia had all the pie, but forgot the taste. She thought she had done all right the sixth time, but Professor McGonagall had pointed out the absence of odor or texture. "There's so much to remember!"

"Tell me about it," said Katie. "Oh, see, there I go again." Katie kept accidentally adding carbonation to her butterbeer. "My mind is stuck on these bubbles."

"Maybe you should try something different, then," Alicia said. "Like…what do you call it? Root beer?"

"Good idea." Katie waved her wand, and a glass of fizzy brown liquid appeared in front of her. She took a sip and giggled. "It still tastes like butterbeer."

After Transfiguration, Alicia went to Muggle Studies. They were on the electronics chapter, which meant a field trip every day to a witch's house in a small nearby village. Radio wasn't very different from what she was used to in the wizarding world. Telephones were a little like talking by Floo Lines. But computers, which had no equivalent in her world, confused Alicia completely. Her grasp of electricity wasn't very good to begin with, and she could not begin to understand its complex weavings inside the CPU. And the keyboard…the letters in a seemingly random arrangement, and all those other keys….

"So, let me try to understand this," she said to her teacher. "You have an arrow on the screen, and when you move the moose--" Several of her classmates were laughing.

"Mouse, Alicia," Angelina Johnson whispered. "It's a mouse."

__

I'm so glad I'm not a Muggle, Alicia thought. _These things are so complicated_.

§ § §

Lunchtime came. Alicia and Katie bolted their food and ran up to their dormroom, followed by a curious Angelina. They locked the door while Katie got out ink and parchment.

"Here goes nothing," she said, inking up the quill. "Think about something, everyone." The quill jumped out of her hand onto the parchment.

Alicia Spinnet: I hate computers, I hate computers, I hate computers…

Katie Bell: Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, had a very shiny nose…

Angelina Johnson: Something something something…

Alicia Spinnet: Something?

Katie Bell: Something?

Angelina Johnson: You said thing of something; it was the first thing that came to mind.

"Katie, try thinking one of our names," suggested Angelina.

Katie Bell: **Alicia.**

"That didn't seem to work," Katie said.

"Maybe if you touch it," Alicia said. "A lot of magical objects require contact."

Katie grabbed the end of the feather.

Alicia Spinnet: The Lia Fáil, and…let's see, the Healing Stone of Skiros, they both require contact…Hey! Is it working, Katie?

"Is it working, Katie?" she echoed a second later.

"I think so," she said, grabbing the feather again.

Katie Bell: Is it writing this down? Yes! Yes, there it is!

"Looks like that did it," said Angelina. "What are you going to do with it?"

"Oh, seeing as we have Potions next," Katie said, twirling the quill with a malicious half-smile on her face, "I think I can come up with something."

§ § §

Katie, Alicia, and Angelina trooped down to Potions. "Do you suppose we should ask for help from Fred or George?" Angelina asked. "They're a lot better at sneaky things than we are."

  
"I think we can do this," Katie said. "We just have to get in the right place, and make sure he doesn't see."

  
"But the twins would be _better_ at making sure he doesn't see," Angelina protested.

  
"But then they'd get all the credit. _I_ want to be the hero for once,  
even if I get detention." Katie sounded so determined that Angelina didn't argue anymore.

  
They took desks in the dungeon and listened while Snape lectured about the dangers of breaking into his classroom at night, especially with the new hexes he had added. Everyone in the classroom knew it was directed at Fred and George, who managed to look innocent throughout the speech. After that they broke into pairs and started brewing a draught for the flu. Snape prowled around, offering "helpful advice" and "constructive criticism" in an acerbic tone. Alicia tensed. Everything depended on timing, luck--and Katie's ability to do a Projection Charm.

Suddenly a fifteen-foot-high parchment appeared in the air over Snape's desk. Alicia smiled inwardly--_Way to go, Katie_. It read:

Severus Snape: I wonder if Samantha and I are still on for this weekend_. _**She said she didn't want to see you anymore, Severus.** But I sent her that bouquet of blood lollipops, and I said I was sorry. I even offered her the chance to bite me if she got hungry while we were out. **Why would anyone want to spend time with you, especially a beautiful, exciting woman three years younger than you are**…

Alicia's eyes popped at this internal argument. _Snape has a girlfriend? A _vampire_?!_ This was too good. She bit her lip to keep from laughing, but it was too late. People wear pointing already. Some were giggling madly, with more joining every second. Snape whirled around, scanned the parchment, and went scarlet with…Alicia didn't know if it was rage or embarrassment. The floating parchment disappeared, and Snape turned around, livid, with murder in his eyes.

"Who did this?" he said in a deadly quiet voice. No one answered. "If I have to find out for myself, I will personally make sure that that person has detention for the rest of the year. If you speak up, the sentence will be lighter." He glanced with cold eyes at the Weasley twins, but they were as stunned as anyone else was. Alicia wanted to glance at Katie, but knew that could give them both away. Snape turned on his heel and walked out of the classroom. Behind him the hisses of whispers and chuckling laughter broke out. Fred Weasley said, "Who did that? It wasn't us." George added, "Yes, who can we worship for this awesome deed?" Katie caught Alicia's eye and winked.

§ § §

Snape did not return. This worried Alicia somewhat; maybe he was off using some special means to divine the culprit. "Maybe he's off owling Samantha," suggested Angelina with a wicked grin on her face. Charms was no problem. By suppertime, however, Alicia was feeling the grind of the day in her still-sore muscles. During the meal she decided what to do about it; something she'd been meaning to do for a few weeks. She went up to her dorm, changed, grabbed a washcloth and her wand, and left.

In the Common Room she was hailed by Fred and George, who were playing Exploding Snap with their little brother Ron. "Hey, Alicia," George said, "where're you going?"

Alicia came closer. "_Swimming_," she said in a conspiratorial whisper, pulling back the shoulder of her robes to reveal a bathing suit.

Fred's eyebrows knitted together. "There isn't a swimming pool at Hogwarts."

"Oh, yes, there is," she said gleefully. "Moaning Myrtle told me about it. She's really nice to me. Apparently I remind her of her best friend at school…well, anyway, if it has to do with plumbing, she knows about it, and she told me." Alicia noticed Ron listening. "Moaning Myrtle," she added for his benefit, "is a ghost who haunts--"

"I know," he interrupted. "We've met."

Alicia's eyebrows shot up. His brothers were giving him considering looks. Ron suddenly realized what he had said, but he didn't try to retract it.

"You want to come?" she said to the twins to break the awkward moment.

They glanced at each other. "Sure," they said at the same time.

Ron spoke up, a bit shyly. "D'you--d'you think it'd be alright if I come? I mean, Harry and Hermione are off _studying_"--he gave the word a peculiar color--"and I don't have anything to do, and…would it be alright?"

The twins looked a little reluctant, but Alicia said yes anyway. As the three boys headed upstairs, Alicia thought about how hard it was when your best friend was attached to a boy. _And when your best friends are attached to each other…poor guy_.

§ § §

Alicia led the brothers down a corridor. Behind a tapestry she touched her wand to the stone and said, "_Aquae Iridis_." The stone pulled away and revealed a very large room done in white and black marble with a swimming pool in the middle, complete with a small waterslide. Alicia transfigured the washcloth into a towel, and took off her robe, while the boys did the same. She motioned for them to come to the edge of the pool. When they were squatted around her, she dipped a finger in. Ripples of colors left her hand and traveled out into the pool: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, violet. "Wow," said the boys in one voice. Ron solemnly scooped up a handful of water and threw it over the pool; the drops fell, the colors rippled, hit each other, bounced off…Fred and George watched, hypnotized.

Alicia smiled. "The first time I came, I did that for a half an hour." She jumped in and splashed them. "I hope it doesn't take you that long, though!" All three boys jumped in after her.

§ § §

Alicia fell into her bed, exhausted, for the second night in a row. Swimming with the boys had been a lot of fun. There had been water fights (George and Ron had ganged up on Fred until Alicia came to his rescue), cannonball contests, watersliding, diving, and just all around good fun. Alicia found Ron good company, more serious than his brothers, but he still knew how to have a good time. The twins had also enjoyed having their little brother around, although they were loathe to admit it. The four had decided that this must become at least a weekly event. The thought was foremost in Alicia's mind as she drifted off to sleep. _Yeah, we had fun_.

§ § §

Well, there you are. Number four. If you like this, you should read my other "days in the lives of minor characters" stories. By the way, I'm not usually a Harry/Hermione fan (sorry, people, it's just not going to happen). It just worked well for this story.

Note: Thank you to everyone who has been reviewing (although not as many as before; must be because Christmas break is over): Izzy, ~*Snowy*~, College Girl, Rebecca Starre, METMA Mandy, Cheshire Cat, Lavender, SnyperKat (it is series--sort of), Ali, Erica (thank you for giving me the idea for this fic's beginning), and metal mouth (thank you especially--long reviews are always appreciated).

Another Note: Nine thousand and one brownie points if you can translate the charm for opening the pool door.


End file.
